


Unknown Error

by Gwencifer



Category: Original Work
Genre: Bromance, F/M, Friendship, I have no idea how to tag this but im trying ok, Original Character(s), Other, POV First Person, POV Original Character, Platonic Relationships, Science Fiction, Short Story, and ofc, i guess?, no but really my kids love eachother and i love them even more
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-26 21:43:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20749232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gwencifer/pseuds/Gwencifer
Summary: [Summary coming soon!]





	Unknown Error

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for an English project and ended up getting a /little/ carried away... Leave it to me to get over-attached to something that was literally only supposed to be 2-3pgs/1500 words *sobs, arms full of my four new children* I LOVE THEM.  
~  
This is my first ever public work, and the first thing I've ever actually finished out of anything I've written ﾍ(￣▽￣*)ﾉ It's not by any means perfect - I was working in a huge time-crunch and a lot of things are less than polished, but I'm really proud of it. I may, in the future, come back and revise/add on to this - I think it'd be really cool to turn into an actual series, but for now I've decided to post it as-is.  
TL;DR, I really enjoyed writing this! It was definitely something WAY out of my comfort zone, but I really feel like I learned so much from doing this. Any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated! I really hope you enjoy it!♡  
-Gwen

Climbing out of a cryo-pod is an experience, I’ll tell you that. Your body doesn’t really work quite right – almost like a child learning how to do something for the first time. Or, at least, that’s what it felt like to me as I attempted to curl my fingers around the support bar beside the latch. I always did hate this part; it was disorienting and honestly unnecessary given the technology we possessed, but the Superiors claimed it aided in “making the transition as smooth as possible,” or some other nonsense, so I suppose there wasn’t much use in whining about it.  
The floor was cold as I finally figured out how to stand. I wobbled a little, my knees having not totally remembered how to bear my weight just yet, but everything was slowly coming back to me.  


“Hey, Sunshine’s finally awake!”  
I turned towards the voice only a little too quickly, and nearly learned what the coldness of the ship floor felt like against my face.  
Ryland caught me by the shoulders with a laugh. “Whoa! Watch your step, Greaves.”  


“You’d think after doing this for the hundredth time I’d have gotten the hang of it by now,” I joked, steadying myself.  
Ryland smirked. “Ah, well, some are just a little slower than others,” He teased, clapping me lightly on the shoulder.  


“You say that as if you didn’t just fall out of your cryo-pod ten minutes ago, Calem,” Peretti said, striding into the room with a medium-sized box in her hands.  
I shot a pointed look at Ryland, whose cheeks had brightened a fraction as he roughly cleared his throat and stepped back. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Captain,” He said quickly.  
Peretti arched a brow. “Uh-huh, sure. Anyways, Allan, here’s your gear,” she said, tapping the top of the box as she set it down on a small bench by the door.  


“Thanks Leah,” I said.  
Peretti smiled, grabbing Ryland by the arm as she turned. “No problem. We’ll see you out in the main when you’re ready.”  


“Yeah, but don’t take forever. We have a job to do,” Ryland added, leaning back to stick his tongue out at me as he was dragged through the door frame. 

I rolled my eyes with an amused huff and made my way over to the bench with careful steps. I sat down beside the box and opened it, its contents standard Pilot field equipment: suit module, visor/earpiece, glove, bracer, and ATH (Advanced Terrain & Hover) boots.  
I pressed the suit module to my sternum, a three-fingered tap making the device hum to life. I watched in awe as small, hexagonal ebony plates unfolded gracefully across my body like a second skin; that would never get old. The visor was next, the apparatus curling snugly around the shell of my ear to connect with my suit collar. Then I stood and pulled on my glove and bracer, before slipping on my boots and heading out into the hallway.

Coming into the main cabin, I spotted Leah near the kitchenette island going over the map with Ryland. She was stood gracefully next to the counter, while Ryland was perched comically atop a barstool that looked way too small for his muscular form, eating a Go-Gurt.  
The two turned to greet me as I approached, claiming the barstool beside Ryland’s.  


“So, to recap,” Leah continued, “The test area we’re covering is a five mile radius around the ship.” She drew a circle around it on the map with her finger, then a larger one around that to designate the collection zone. “I’ve broken it into eight sections, or four quadrants: North, South, East, and West. Our job is to make sure that this planet is viable for human life—”  


“—and colonization,” Ryland finished, squeezing his Go-Gurt.  
Leah smiled, chocolate eyes brightening. “Exactly. So you did pay attention the first time around,” she teased.  
Ryland shrugged, face tinting a few shades as he gestured for her to continue.  


“Anyway, Kath was getting antsy, so she went on to scout ahead. We should catch up to her before she gets too far – you know how she gets distracted,” Leah added.  
We all shared a laugh, Ryland ditching his empty yogurt tube, before exiting the ship

Stepping out outside was a breath of fresh air – literally. The ship was positioned in the middle of a small clearing, the craft itself being one of the smaller models at only just 30 by 10ft in size; more than enough room for a four person crew. Bordering the clearing in a near perfect circle was a thick wall of trees and flora. This particular planet was intensely vegetated, with the trees ranging anywhere from 20ft to upwards of 300ft, while the leaves of some of the “smaller” ground plants were larger than my entire torso. Interestingly enough, the fauna of the planet was vastly small in comparison, the majority of the lifeforms being no larger than the average Australian Shepard – and all extremely docile at that. Here, the only threat we faced was the environment, weather, and that of our own stupidity.  
Leah taking the lead, Ryland and I instinctively fell into formation as we made our way towards Kath’s blip. According to my bracer’s holo-map, she was only ten yards or so West, but that was still an incredible distance to cover with only a fifteen minute head-start; Kath was fast.  
Twenty minutes later, and we still hadn’t found her. This was typical Kath behavior, she was notorious for getting distracted and wandering off, however, we were practically on top of her marker, yet she was nowhere to be found.  


“Kath!” Ryland shouted for the fifth time while brushing past a particularly large leaf, holding it out of the way for me and Leah to pass under. “Come on, Moore, seriously, where are you?”  
Silence answered. We were all beginning to get a little nervous at this point, if the tenseness of Ryland’s shoulders was anything to go by. The guy was usually the most relaxed of the four of us, with Leah at close second, but even she was looking a little anxious.  
The sound of a branch cracking abruptly filled the air, making all of us jump just as a blurred shape plummeted from the canopy. In my surprise, I tripped backwards on a small rock, and was now sitting boot to boot with a very disheveled-looking Kathleen. She lurched forwards with a pained groan, hands moving to pull out a twig that had gotten stuck in her mess of auburn hair.  


“Oh, hey guys. What’s shakin’?” Kath asked flatly, leaving me, Ryland, and Leah to all share a look before simultaneously bursting into laughter.  
Leah helped the both of us up, while Ryland bandaged the few scrapes Kath had sustained in her apparently accidental “tumble,” as she’d put it.  


“I was trying to get a good scan on this little... squirrel-lookin’ guy, but he just wouldn’t stay still long enough!” Kath said defensively, crossing her arms and shooting an accusing glare at the canopy.  
I blinked slowly at her as Ryland stuck a band-aid over the cut on her left cheek. “And that somehow includes you climbing ten feet up a tree?” I asked incredulously.  


“Yeah,” Kath said in a duh sort of tone.  
I snorted a laugh and shook my head. “Of course it does. You’re lucky you got by with only scrapes though, it could have been much worse. I know that we’re... well here—” I said, gesturing to our surroundings, “—but you still should try to be more careful.”  
Kath brushed a lock of hair behind her ear and smiled. “I know. Now!” she announced, raising a finger to the air. “Let’s get this show on the road!”

The next five hours were spent collecting various soil, water, air, and plant samples. The designated test area was a total of eight sectors; two in each cardinal direction. Leah and Ryland took the South quadrant, while Kath and I handled the West.  
We placed down locator stakes wherever we were able to get a successful sample to mark where we’d been, and by the time the four of us met back up in the middle, our maps were lit up like a miniature constellation of tiny blue locator icons.  


“That puts us, what... half-way done?” Ryland asked, resting his hands on his hips.  


“Just about,” I replied, wiping the sweat off my forehead with a grin.  
Leah updated the map to display the West and South quadrants as complete. “We got a lot done today, nice job everyone,” she said with a smile.  
Kath stuck her tongue out and pumped a fist to the air in triumph. “I think this is probably a new record!” she exclaimed, hooking an arm around my neck and flicking my topknot. I returned the gesture, intending on ruffling up her hair, but before my hand could make contact an electronic ping filled the air.  
Kath and I exchanged confused looks, both pulling back to inspect our bracers. My holo-map sprung up with a gentle twist of the hand, leaving the four of us to stare slack-jawed as a few of the locator stakes vanished off the screen.  


“...D’ya think it’s a glitch?” Ryland asked, green eyes wide.  
My brows furrowed. “Is that even possible? Here?”  
Leah moved in close and pushed all our bracers together to combine our maps into a larger display. Another locator disappeared. “I... I don’t know,” She said honestly. “This has never happened before.”

We backtracked to the nearest missing locator, expecting to find that it had shut down, or perhaps simply malfunctioned – but what we found instead was nothing at all. It was like we’d never even been there to begin with.  


“I literally stuck it right there,” Ryland exclaimed. “Look, you can even see right where it was.”  
Leah and I peered closer, and sure enough, there was a hole in the dirt exactly where the stake had been.  


“That doesn’t make any sense – where could it have gone?” I asked. “You don’t think some of the wildlife took it, do you?”  
Ryland shook his head. “I doubt it. Those locator stakes are pretty hefty, and everything on this planet could probably fit in my palm.”  
I glanced to Ryland’s hand, which was easily the size of my entire skull. “That’s true – still doesn’t tell us where it went though...”  


“Guys,” Leah said suddenly, prompting the two of us to turn towards her. “Did either of you see where Kath went?”  
I whipped around, finding our firecracker of a mechanic nowhere to be seen. “She was right...” I paused, glancing down to my map to find Kath’s icon about twenty feet away from our current position, and held it up for Ryland and Leah to see.  
Ryland snorted. “We should put a bell on her.”  


“That might not be such a bad idea,” Leah laughed quietly. “Well let’s go get her. This planet’s day cycle is about twelve hours shorter than Earth’s – it’ll be dark in less than an hour, and I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not be traipsing around in a forest as densely vegetated as this one at night.” Leah said.  


“Aye-aye, Cap,” Ryland said with a nod, the three of us falling into step as we moved towards Kath’s location.  
The sight we stumbled upon, however, was not anywhere close to what we’d been expecting.

According to our map, we should have been right on top of her, but unlike last time, there was no tree for her to have climbed up; the location was directly in the middle of a small empty clearing. There were no shrubs, bushes, or any other flora that could have obscured her, leaving the three of us dumbstruck as to where exactly Kath was.  
The three of us split apart to search the area, but there wasn’t much to search. I walked over to a medium-sized boulder close to the edge of the clearing, but saw nothing more than some small flowers that had sprung up around its base. I turned to rejoin with Leah and Ryland, but a metallic flash caught my eye. I leant back, peering around the side of the boulder—  
I froze.  
There, in the dirt, was a distinctly familiar piece of gear: Kath’s visor. It was unmistakable, the sparkly pink heart sticker a vibrant contrast to the green grass beneath it, but it was the smear of blood across the module’s metallic surface that made something in my chest clench tight.  


“GUYS!” I yelled, keeping my voice steady as it carried easily across the small clearing.  
Leah and Ryland were at my side in seconds. “Did you find her?” Leah asked, voice bright and hopeful.  
I picked up Kath’s visor with uncertain fingers, almost as if I was afraid it might crumble in my hands. I turned slowly towards them, their eyes flicking down to my hands, and all at once the color drained from my teammates’ faces.  
Silence enveloped.  


“You don’t think...” Ryland started, but fell short, his voice trailing off into an uncertain whisper.  
Leah’s eyes went blank, hands carefully reaching to take the visor from me. “No,” She said, but her voice wavered in a way that suggested she was still trying to convince herself. “She probably just tripped and it fell off. You know how clumsy Kath is – she’s probably walking around with a bloody nose right now.” Leah laughed quietly, but it sounded forced.  
Ryland’s face shifted suddenly, and I watched in confusion as he stepped around us and crouched down by the opposite side of the boulder.  


“What?” I asked.  
Ryland didn’t say a word, eyes wide as he reached for the rock. His movements were slow, cautious, a tremor racing up the muscles in his forearm. He swiped his finger across the surface, then drew back to stare at his hand in apprehension.  
Two quick strides had me at Ryland’s shoulder, but the sight I rounded on had me falling short in alarm.  
I swallowed hard, eyes fixed on the iridescent liquid splattered across the stone surface. It was thick – heavy droplets rolling down the various contours of the rock, like honey. Ryland stood slowly and held his hand out to me.  


“...What is it?” he asked quietly.  
The light deflected off of it in pastel pinks and greens and blues as it dripped sluggishly down Ryland’s knuckle. It was almost beautiful, in a grotesque kind of way, but Leah was eyeing at the substance like Ryland shouldn’t be touching it, and as if on cue, quickly pulled out a handkerchief and wiped it off. She placed the napkin in an airtight bio-bag, and stuffed it back into her pack. Leah was silent a moment, eyes searching the clearing again before flicking upwards.  


“It’ll be dark in less than a half-hour,” She said finally, glancing down to her bracer. Kath’s icon remained stalwart, having not moved at all. “I think you were right Ryland, it has to be some kind of glitch. We’ve searched every inch of this clearing and Kath obviously isn’t here, but for some reason her location isn’t updating on the map.”  
Ryland sighed and reached back to clasp his hands behind his neck. “So what you’re saying is she could be anywhere – and we have no way of figuring out where that is because our gear’s somehow gone haywire?”  
Leah’s slow exhale was confirmation enough.  


“Yeah well, as good the night-vision in our visors are, looking for her in the dark is going to be one hell of a task with all these trees,” I said, gesturing to the darkened foliage surrounding us.  


“We’re going to have to come back in the morning,” Leah said finally, adding, “And in the meantime, maybe you can figure out what’s going on with our gear, Allan.”  
I nodded, and the three of us turned aversely back the way we’d come to begin the hour-long trek to the ship.

Night fell quickly, and soon enough we found ourselves contending with absolute darkness. Thank God for night-vision, otherwise, knowing me, I probably would have ended up in several puddles of mud by now. Atypically, Leah had taken up the rear in our current formation; she’d said nothing of it, and no one asked, but I knew it was because she wanted to keep an eye on us.  


“—maybe she found another one of those squirrel-things and followed it back to its nest or something,” Ryland joked, having been coming up with various comedic explanations for the past five minutes as to where Kath had wandered off to.  
His face suddenly brightened, a short laugh erupting from his chest. “She’s probably integrated herself into their little squirrel society!”  
Leah gave a small giggle at that. “She would do that, wouldn’t she.”  


“Haha! Imagine her falling asleep in some old, hollowed-out log or something,” I teased, tapping my fist on Ryland’s shoulder.  
He barked out another loud laugh, head tossed back. “She totally would! I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve found her sleeping in odd places – right, Leah?”  
Leah was quiet a moment.  


“Leah?”  
Ryland and I turned in unison to find empty space.  
Our grins dropped off our faces like rocks plummeting into a void. She had been standing right behind me, and now I was staring off into nothingness. Leah was nowhere to be found. Ryland and I burst into action, shouting frantically into the dense vegetation, but there was no reply.  
Several moments passed, and a twig snapped off in the darkness, followed by a hollow rustling sound. We both stilled, hearts thundering.  


“Leah?” Ryland called out again. Silence followed. “...Kath?” He asked hopefully.  
Again, no reply. Ryland took a step in the direction of the sound, and I shot out a hand to stop him. Are you sure about this? My eyes asked. Ryland slowed, quickly pulling up his bracer. Leah’s icon hadn’t moved from where we’d seen her last, like Kath’s, and according to the map, the nearest lifeform was 3km East of our position. Whatever made that sound had to be one of the girls. I nodded and let go of Ryland’s arm, watching in anticipation as he cautiously approached the bushes.  


“Kath, is that you? Leah?” Ryland pushed a large fern out of the way and peered into the sea of leaves.  
The silence persisted for all of two seconds.  
One moment I was staring at Ryland’s broad shoulders, and the next he was flat on his back, being dragged into the darkness with a shattered yell.  
Time stopped. I could barely even hear the screaming of my own thoughts over the deafening sound of my pulse. Yet, amidst the night-vision turquoise-lined foliage, I caught a glimpse of something my brain was too scared to comprehend – and it was not human.  
My heart in my throat, I stood, paralyzed as the seconds seemed to tick by for an eternity. Then the leaves rustled softly.  
Every single bone in my body screamed run as an entity emerged from the thick of ferns and grass, its bloodied maw opening in what could only be described as a sadistic grin – so I did.

The wind whistled past my face as I broke into a dead sprint, hover boots humming to life, allowing me to gain some speed and distance between me and it. I could hear it chasing me; breathy pants and wet snarls as it cut through the trees.  
This planet doesn’t have hostile lifeforms, the mission overview replayed in my mind. Yeah? Then, what the hell is that?! my thoughts screamed, feeling hot breath ghost over my heels.  
They’d gotten it wrong, apparently.  
I burst through the tree line and into the main clearing, the metallic gleam of the ship a beacon of hope – but any chance I had of reaching it was destroyed when the thing proceeded to jump and tear off one of my boots. Destabilized, I fell out of the air with a strangled scream, the creature’s claws tearing easily through my Nano-suit as it tackled me to the ground. I thrashed against its weight, barely having the presence of mind to register the way my ribs began to snap like brittle wood beneath its six powerful limbs. I was a Pilot, and trained like one, but the sheer force this entity was capable of generating wasn’t anything I could have ever prepared for. I was pinned in seconds, body crushed into the dirt as the creature loomed over me.  
With no hope of escaping, I could do nothing more than stare in horror. It was something out of a nightmare, the entity’s features holding an almost canine-likeness, but its body was too long – too wiry; muscles and tendons bulging from beneath ebony-grey skin. Its tongue flicked out into the air, breath hot against my face as the muscle coiled around itself like a snake. Then, all of a sudden its body began to twitch, the plates down its back and sides rippling not unlike the way my Nano-suit had unfurled across my own body. Its skin appeared to shift and flicker, as if not completely there – or rather, was blending seamlessly into the surroundings. My eyes widened, the realization hitting me like a train: that’s why it wasn’t registered on any of our scans. This entity possessed some kind of cloaking biomechanic, hiding it so well, it was as if it’d never existed at all. Very clever.  
The creature let out a bone-rattling growl, hollow and distorted as its saliva dripped onto my face. All I could see was rows and rows of razor-sharp teeth, its jaw suddenly unhinging with an unnatural pop – and then it clamped down, introducing me to a level of pain so intense it defied the laws of reality. My senses shattered, and the darkness swallowed me whole. 

I bolted awake from the Simulation, body aching and drenched in sweat. My hearing zoned in and out of clarity; voices whispering and overlapping, but I could partly make out the shrill beep of my heart monitor off to the side. My vision swam as I struggled to focus, the distorted faces of doctors and technicians blurring around my peripheries.  


“—Greaves! Come on Greaves, center yourself.”  


“Allan, focus, you need to calm down...”  


“Breathe, Allan.”  
The voices slowly began to drift apart, becoming distinct and clear rather than warped and muddy. I blinked hard, the bright spots and visual echoes subsiding, as one by one, my senses began to come back online.  


“There you are,” One of the nurses said, gently helping me sit forwards. I was handed a glass of water just as two Overseers made their way over to me.  
It was a man and a woman; the woman’s lips a gaudy shade of pink, and the man sporting a thick pair of glasses over his stern grey eyes. “Greaves, what happened?” he questioned, voice sharp and accusatory.  
I looked to my hands, turning them over slowly. “...I don’t know,” I answered hoarsely.  
The woman’s gaze narrowed, as if she too somehow thought I was to blame. “I don’t know?” she scoffed, “What do you mean, “I don’t know” – you were there!”  
I turned to look at her, eyes sharp. “I. Don’t. Know.” I repeated, jaw clenching tight.  
The Overseers shared a brief look, disdain clearly evident on their faces, before backing away from my immediate space, and gesturing out with a hand.  
My eyes flicked between the two for a second, trying my best to remain as subordinate as possible without letting them step on me, before giving a terse bow and excusing myself.  
I made a bee-line over to my teammates, each in various stages of similar distress. Ryland was sitting between the girls on a bench, strong arms wrapped protectively around their shoulders as they stared blankly ahead, deep in thought. Ryland’s gaze shot up to me as I neared, and he immediately brightened despite the circumstances.  


“Hey, Sunshine’s finally awake,” Ryland said with a smile, parroting his greeting words to me that morning – though, with a considerably more tired tone, and a lot less enthusiasm, but it was still same ole’ on-brand-Ryland.  
I gave an amused exhale. “And Boy Scout’s chipper as ever!”  
Ryland chuckled. “’M trying to be.”  


“...Did you guys really think I ran off and joined some “squirrel-society”?” Kath interjected, a disbelieving grin on her face. “I’m not that much of a nut, ya’know,” she joked.  
Leah’s lips split into a wide smile at that. “Yeah, you are,” she giggled, provoking a hearty laugh from me and Ryland.  


“I think that’s an all-time record for mission failure! That was, what... eight hours Sim-time? That’s barely four hours real-time, let alone the planet’s full day cycle,” Leah continued, gaining another round of snickers.  


“Better luck next time?” I teased, quieting a beat before drawing closer to place a hand on Leah and Kath’s shoulders, eyes locking briefly with all three of my teammates. “...Are you guys ok?”  
They each took up matching smiles; a little shaken, but sound. Leah nodded, reaching up to squeeze Ryland’s hand. “Yeah, we’re good.”

We drifted off into another light conversation before I eventually found myself drawn over to the pedestal in the room’s center. My steps were nearly soundless as I approached it, a perfect 3D holo-model of the planet spinning quietly—almost tranquilly—atop its reflective surface; mountains, rivers, canyons, fauna, and trees, all displayed with perfect accuracy. Yet, despite the identical rendering of the planet, and the impeccable technology used to capture it, the scan somehow managed to overlook one, tiny, important detail; an “unknown” error, if you will.  
I found myself recounting said detail, the ghost of the entity’s hot breath still fresh in my senses, as Kath quietly came to stand beside me.  
We were both silent a moment, eyes fixed on the light blue of the interactive hologram. Four red markers were strewn in close proximity to each other; a clear, obvious note of how and where we’d all been forcefully “ejected” from the Simulation, to put it mildly.  


“...What do you think it was?” Kath asked softly. “I got a glance, but... you were in there for a long time, Allan.”  
I looked over to her, meeting her eyes a moment before fixing my gaze back on the model. “Honestly... I’m not sure. But even if I was, you don’t want to know.” I replied. “It was...” I gave a wry laugh. “It was something.”  
Kath leant her shoulder against mine. “Yeah... It was so real though.”  


“Well, the Simulation is essentially a technology-generated lucid dream, it’s designed to feel as real as the real thing.” I said, draping an arm around her.  


“...Still sucked.” Kath said with a smile.  
I snorted. “I would tend to agree.”  
I guess in the end, despite the way technology has, and continues to advance, nature will always find a way to be one step ahead.


End file.
